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Pretty Horses (Schoene Pferden)

The Past

In the past I tried blogging. In fact, I think that I have done some personal blogging for more than 6 years, including 2 old Uranian Fiction websites, this blog and also Wealthy Affiliate websites that use my name miriampia.org and .com rather than using Uranian Fiction.

After 3 or 4 years of effort, I just started to write a blog with a structured weekly schedule but then suddenly, something else happened which undermined that whole effort. I don’t even remember what it was now.

The Present

Now, this is also blogging. I did a little professional blogging in the past – mostly for a Atlanta Real Estate, about a decade ago, but I think I have blogged professionally elsewhere. I realize that sounds whacky, but if you meet enough professional writers it will seem less crazy. It is a volume & mind set issue as it relates to memory.

I do believe that structured blogging can make sense. In my own case, I may have to start all over again.

Topics

The truth is that I like the idea of being able to blog to readers on various topics and even in multiple ways. Some days I want to produce professional copy as I do write professionally but other times I just want to share my personality with readers. Not only that but there are also days which are more like ‘wow’ days – to share spontaneously, whether about some new facet of German culture or another travel location or something else. Maybe it would be about hair and fashion rather than culture or delves deeply into my mood one day – out of nowhere: what some people would describe as ‘random’.

Sharing on the blogosphere about my latest location is one of the purposes of the blog. I have considered professional travel writing and have written a few pro blogs about real estate but this is more of an informal type of sharing.

The weather today has continued to be above freezing. The bad news is that we are left out of the snow. The good news is that we are left out of the cold and the snow.

Having been a home body today I have nothing else new to report. That doesn’t mean nothing has changed. The big change in our lives today is that the shed door that was blown off the hinges by high winds back in October has been fixed today and is better than it was before. The other big news is that no classes were cancelled at Sven’s Domgymnasium over in Verden.

Verden is the nearest bigger town. They have a hospital and more schools and library etc.. Verden has quite a history. In the late 700AD/CE Christian invaders from the Roman Empire managed to beat down local “pagan” or unreligious tribes. After that, for 1000 years the town was the seat of the Bishropric of Verden. The area was included by the Kingdom of Hannover with strong ties to the more democratic or merchant run ‘free city’ of Bremen a day’s ride further North maybe less on the river. After that or during all of that Verden became a great cavalry and horse town. They have had national and regional and even international champion equestrians from right around here. More recently the English – who were formerly related to the Kingdom of Hannover, were stationed here between WWI and WW2 and then from WW2 until 1998. Since then Verden has carried on and became part of the new reunited Germany.

Well, Saxony. From where I come from, it seemed like a mythical place trapped in time. Around here it is just a human settlement done mainly in brick and farming where the people are not very outgoing, but if you approach them they will usually give you a straight answer in the German language. If you speak German it is clear that they are being clear but if you don’t it mainly sounds like they are coughing or about to spit even when in good health. That’s actually just what German sounds like. So, this is contemporary Saxony. Most live in cities, but I have become ‘a horse petter’ as I am in the countryside. That wasn’t even my own horse, just one of the locals.

Horses, if you didn’t know, are very curious about the odors to be found on bicycles. They are very curious about them or interested, or see them as a plot against horse back riding but less dangerous than cars. I don’t know the horse point of view, so I can only speculate.

Writing contracts: Like so many professions there can be a lot of money in it, but for the majority of people there isn’t. Most writers who earn a decent living do so in one of the two following ways: 1) they have a day job, or 2) they are in house writers who write lots of pieces their management told them to write because management has to produce enough stuff to make the business earn money and the way to do that is to let the writers write some pieces they like and make the writers do a lot of writing they don’t want to do at all but will do it because they want to pay their bills and not be fired by their management.

Then there are the ones who actually get enough pay doing it how they prefer. Such people are either very generous or exceptionally adept at finding the paying projects much like the better fishermen really get better results. There are also those who do get enough work but it never pays well. Such people are often like all of the other working poor who at least get low pay and meager livings doing something they like alright rather than bad pay for work they have to do even though they don’t like it.

I think that sums that up nicely. If it seemed to you as if the horse sniffed your bicycle, that is probably what really happened.

As most of you already know, I am living in Germany as a foreigner “for a few years” because my son is not foreign to this nation or to the USA and I wanted him to get to know Germany as well as the USA during his youth but be able to have “Mommy and Daddy” – as well as any step-parents (as what happened made it so that he had some) available throughout his youth.

There is no doubt about it: I do know Germany better now than I did when we first arrived over 2 years ago now. It is not really ‘how I had thought’ which both surprises me and doesn’t….we had both visited before but not stayed for so long.

This is also the first time I have spent more than a few weeks in the countryside since I was age 5 to …well…put it this way, the son had never lived in the countryside before we moved here…and I had not lived in a place like this – ever. I guess this is normal for Europe, but it is really a densely populated village with farm animals around many a corner. It is not like American rural – there are loads of people here…4000 or so within about 2 square miles!…but Mavis the dairy cow lives right next to the Schmidt family…and the Weiters have like 30 chickens running around in their front yard…and a 20something woman who lives as a goat herd here in the neighborhood even sports a goat tattoo on one of her shins. If it isn’t that, then it’s the horses. Farm animals and brick houses….

Damyanti Biswas is an author, blogger, animal-lover, spiritualist. Her work is represented by Ed Wilson from the Johnson & Alcock agency. When not pottering about with her plants or her aquariums, you can find her nose deep in a book, or baking up a storm.